It’s the church youth club fundraiser tonight – an overnight games marathon. 12 hours of games and mayhem and tired teenagers. What’s this got to do with me you ask? Well you might. I ‘retired’ from the youth club leadership a while ago, but they’ve been left in the lurch a bit for this event. It’s the usual story – pleas for help have fallen largely on deaf ears. It’s not helped by the fact that one of the leaders (who helped organise it) has since pulled out of leadership and isn’t going to come. So that’s what it has to do with me. I’m going to be helping out overnight. Great joy! Mind you, it’ll not be the first time I’ve done one of these, but I did hope that the last one would be just that. My wife has it worse though. She had offered her help as an extra adult body (but not a leader) when the other person quit so she’s having to help as well. Unfortunately she also has a major Girls’ Brigade fundraiser tomorrow which she can’t avoid. Prayers for all events and those involved would be much appreciated.

Just to add insult to injury – actually the other way round – one of my teeth broke today. The corner of a back molar came adrift when I was eating a ‘healthy’ cereal bar. I phoned my dentist and the next available date for a treatment appointment is the 26th of May – 5 weeks away. However, if I’m in pain, they’ll ‘see’ if I can be fitted in any earlier. I’m trying not to think about it because it doesn’t actually hurt at the moment but I’m convinced that there’s a dull throbbing starting to develop. I’m pretty certain this is just psychosomatic and certainly not helped by me poking around with a toothbrush to work out if it is sensitive at all. I really dislike going to the dentist, though I do go for my regular checkups. But I’ve never had particularly ‘healthy’ teeth. My mouth is a bunch of gaps, fillings and crowns. Oh well! Grin and bear it and hope that 5 weeks passes quickly.

2 Responses to “Madness”

What a nightmare…. I have a similar dislike, nay, hatred, of dentists and have a regular visit with mine when one of mine falls out and needs replaced. They can, as you say, fit you on an an ’emergency’ appointment, but you have to wait for a space… (I was going to say gap, there..oops) As for grinning and bearing it, was that intentional ??
The youth overnighter sounds quite an exciting idea. What kinds of games are being played ?
I think there’ll be a few bleary eyes (your wife’s most likely).
Be assured our prayers and have as much fun as you can.

Well my broken tooth has not, as yet, developed into toothache, so maybe it’ll last. And yes, it was intentional.

The games night went well. They’re a good bunch a young people so we didn’t have the traumatic time we’ve sometimes had in the past. They were pretty much willing to join in all the games which is a bonus. We had a mix of stuff including unihoc, relay races, pictionary, circle games and messy challenges (think sweeties, syrup and rice krispies). I was pretty shattered the next morning. Caroline, impressively, did the GB lunch before coming home mid-afternoon and crashing out. I’ve decided I’m getting too old for this sort of thing.

Oh, yes… I also discovered that the recently retired leader had never intended coming and the person organising it had been advised to do something a bit less ambitious. However, he went ahead with the overnighter plan because he had been sure that two friends would be able to help out – they weren’t. Still, it all worked out in the end.